Feather After // Chapter 38 // Old Friends And New Talks

Thankyou Luna7890 for the cover on the side. It looks amazing!

Aria's POV 

I ran out if there, I felt suffocated and most of all used. Everyone was the same, all they wanted to do was do use you and when you wanted something in return, they ran away, too scared to even say something, thinking that it might hurt them. I wiped my tears and ran out of school, I could not take them anymore, I couldn't take the idea of this. It felt bad and I didn't know what to do. I couldn't breathe and I used my mouth for air. I hoped that Manchurian wasn't around because I didn't want him to see me like this. If he did, he would tell Nanna and then she would pester me till she knew what was going on.

And at some point of time, I didn't want to break Nanna, I was the only family she had. Her daughter had passed away when she was giving birth to her baby, and that sad part was her child was born dead, it was a baby girl and Nanna couldn't do anything. She was growing old day by day. She was not as active as she used to be. She was supposed to only take care of me just like Manchurian was supposed to, but only if my father knew that keeping them around me would stop physical harm but I would be still entitled to emotional pain that they caused me.

Wasn't it ironic, they had kept them to help me and protect me when they were the ones who are hurting me the most?

I sat on one of the benches near the statue of Mr. Maple and I saw Misty approaching me. She wore her black skirt with a white singlet and her hair was tied up in a ponytail. Her cheekbones were visible and to say that she was attractive was an understatement.

She was beautiful and most importantly she was my first friend in Maple High. I was suddenly conscious of my looks and what I looked like, with the natural normal hair and skin, paired with an average body that I didn't fit in the category of being thin or thick. I was somewhere in between and let's just say it wasn't the most attractive thing around here.

Being a teenager with a body that was not considered pretty was a struggle of its own. We had no role models to look up to, being different and confident was a boon, after all, we lived in a society that thrived from self-doubt.

I opened and closed my eyes, again and again, hoping that I didn't have red eyes or nose or ears. As she was approaching me I was trying to make up an excuse as fast as I could, because I didn't want to tell her that I was crying for a guy who had offered me to share him with her.

She looked at me and smiled. "I have not seen you in a while, you know?" She looked at me again and pulled me close to her, "oh god, I have missed seeing you around for a while. I mean it hasn't been so long but it feels like ages."

"Tell me all about it. You tell me, how have you been?" Too overwhelmed by seeing her react to me like that, it was the best performance that I could give. I was so shocked. I expected it to be more of hair pulling, screaming and shouting. You know someone getting hurt, ambulance and police and everything but that never happened.

I was one hundred percent sure that even if Misty didn't know everything, she must have had some idea about what was happening between me and her boyfriend. Two months ago if someone would have told me that I was going to fight for a boy with some girl who was my so-called friend, I would have slapped that person right away.

Look at me now, I guess, love does strange things to people.

"I have been great, you know? Life has been easy and more or less, less complicated," she sat next to me on the bench, "I heard you poured your orange juice can on our so-called bad boy." And kissed him after that and then slapped him.

"Yeah, this is crazy. Everyone knows about it, and I swear to god, I didn't mean to do it. Like in a flash I was walking towards him and in a matter of seconds I had poured the god damn juice on him and was screaming at a teacher for touching me."

"Shit happens, girl. And this is like the hottest gossip of the time. Everyone is talking about it," She smiled as if she was enjoying my discomfort.

"That's the thing about gossip. News one comes in and the other one fades away," I knew I was trying to console myself.

"Don't worry some of our juniors worship you now. They are calling you hot. You are suddenly the apple of everyone's eye," was she jealous? Maybe I was over thinking the whole situation just because of you know, she kissed the guy whom I had kissed.

"I'd rather jump off a building, you know? The last thing I want to be is someone's eye candy. Ew."

She rolled her eyes and arched her neck back and moved it from one direction to the other. She was truly enjoying the Rays of the run which I hadn't even noticed, till now.

"You're very dramatic Aria, things are not going to be your way always you know?" She rolled her eyes again and I was shocked and smitten all at the same time I wanted to pull her eyes out.

"What do you mean? You are angry at me because I would rather take the fall than have people gush about me?" I looked at her. Her eyes showed anger and feelings that even I was scared of reading.

"No Aria, you're oblivious, and the problem is that you're so oblivious that you don't even know you're oblivious."

"Okay first decide whether I'm oblivious not because this mixture of feelings is out of my hand you know."

"That's your problem Aria you're so scared of falling down, that you won't even try to fly. You have so much. I mean you don't want to see stuff, you don't want to fight, stuff that other people can clearly see. When you see that stuff, you'll really know what is going around," she looked at me and smiled. She knew she had hit the nerve.

"I'll tell you something that you don't know, okay? Just stop it. It's really scaring me now. Either tell me everything or don't tell me anything at all. This intermediate is something that is out of my capacity. And right now, I have enough, actually, more than enough problems in my life and the last thing I want you to do is increasing some. So if you don't have anything good to say, just stop it."

She was shocked. I knew it. We were friendly with each other but that didn't mean that she would say crap to me and I won't say anything. I had been living with that I won't say anything to you no matter what you say to me for a long while now. I gulped and looked at her.

0"I'm sorry-" she started to say but I cut her off.

"It's okay really and I kind of overreacted, so I guess I'm sorry too," she smiled and started looking in front of us.

"You know, you deserve better, everyone deserves better. But we can't really see it, you know?" She said 'you know' a lot. She used it more than any other words in the vocabulary, "pay attention girl," she waved her hand in front of my face and she wiggled her eyebrows up and down, what a strange sight to see. When she was sure I was listening to her, she continued, "Where was I?" She put her hand on her chin and lifted her face upwards. She furrowed her eyebrows once again and then said, "oh yeah, now I remember, as I was saying, you know, we don't get what we want all the time but sometimes we need to make the best out of the situation up are placed into. You know, like you know when you don't know what to do and where to go and you know, that you don't know the way but you still keep doing because you know why not giving up is the key sometimes."

"What the hell has happened to you? Do you have a fever?" I tried to put my hand on her forehead to check her temperature because sometimes people just lose it, and she moved back.

"Here, I'm trying to make you feel better, and here you are?" She looked at me strangely and started making faces at me. Well, she was annoyed because I interrupted her 'I'll preach everyone' mood. But don't get me wrong, it was very strange. It was like an insomniac saying that he/she liked to sleep at night.

"How do those words sound coming out of your mouth?"

"Like vinegar?" And I smiled.

"Touché."

"You know? I know what's doing around with our bad boy and you," here comes the bomb that I won't think would even fall anytime soon taking that the mood had become all happy and gay.

"Okay? Tell me honestly how do you expect me to react?" I turned towards her. Maybe her face will reveal something that her heart and mouth won't.

"That's what I want you to do. You give up on things around you so easily. You're not willing to fight for him, are you? Are you even willing to fight for yourself?"

"Well, I'm already fighting for myself and to be honest I can't fight for someone who doesn't even want to be in my team, and he is right we don't have anything like really. I see it you don't. And trust me I'm not interested in a fling. And last, of all you don't have any idea how embarrassed I'm. He is your man, and it's obvious that you like him and I'm so sorry for what I had done. I mean if I knew you guys were together from the beginning I wouldn't have crossed the path, I'll stop now."

"Try harder Aria, don't give up because if you give up now, all the hard work will go in vain," was she making fun of me or was she serious, I mean did she know that I had kissed Ignatius twice now and that I had seen him make out with her and other girls too. I don't know what she was referring to but I knew it was related to Ignatius only.

"I'll talk about it later. I have a class to attend and there are more than enough things going around. Let me figure them out. Anyways it was nice seeing you here and I'll message you," I looked at her and smiled. I jumped off the chair and she did too.

"Let's go," she gestured me to go inside.

"I'll come back in a minute, you go, I'll just use the washroom and will call you or message you whatever," she nodded. As she started to move towards the gate, I called her name, "Thank-you," I said, she mumbled a quick, 'that's what friend are for you know right' and started walking towards the main school building. She turned around to wave at me when she reached the door and I smiled. As soon as she disappeared I walked in the opposite direction.

I need some time to be there. Sometimes to figure out what I wanted and how I wanted them. What Misty said was right and maybe I was ready to walk away from Ignatius, Zachariah couldn't be that bad either could he be? I mean I knew he was my fiancé and that arrange marriage wasn't his thing either but at least I could try right? I walked towards the exit of the school and when Manchurian saw me approaching him, he smiled and opened the door for me.

He asked the driver to turn the car around we're going in the opposite direction from where my house was. When Manchurian looked at me through the rare view mirror he said, "Your mother asked you to drop you at her office, you have to prepare your self for Seattle's upcoming masquerade."